For cleaning textiles, those skilled in the art know about various suitable active substances which, used as additives in washing agents, for example, produce the targeted removal or reduced perception of dirt. For example, those skilled in the art will differentiate for this purpose dirt that is eliminated primarily by surfactants from dirt that can be removed with the help of enzymes or bleaching agents, for example.
The quality of the removal of bleachable soiling, such as colored fruit and vegetable spots forms a central quality feature of a detergent. During the bleaching, the bleachable dirt should be bleached out and/or removed, on the one hand, but on the other hand, the textile should not be damaged by the bleach.
However, bleaching agents that are stable in storage, when incorporated as an active ingredient into solid washing agents, are not stable in liquid washing agents. Liquid washing agents are increasingly preferred by consumers, and the market share of liquid washing agents is growing. Because of the aforementioned stability problem with bleaching agents in liquid washing agents, a solid bleaching agent composition may be a logical supplement for use in liquid washing agents.
A solid bleaching agent composition that can be used as an additive should contain only a few additional ingredients in addition to the active bleaching compound in order to have conservative use of resources. For packaging of a solid bleaching agent additive in a water-soluble wrapping as a dosing unit, it is advantageous if said bleaching agent additive takes up a small volume. Economization with regard to additional ingredients and a reduction in the volume of the total composition necessarily lead to a high concentration of active bleaching compound.
Use of a large amount of bleach-active compound by weight, combined with the presence of organic compounds, results in instability of the bleaching agent, even in solid compositions. It has been found that a solid composition containing bleaching agent, for example peroxide compounds, in the amount of at least about 30% by weight is thermally unstable on coming in contact with organic compounds, in particular at storage temperatures above about 35° C., and decomposes with an evolution of heat.
Despite these stability problems, it is impossible to completely eliminate additional organic compounds as active ingredients for supplying a bleaching agent additive that is effective on textiles. At least the combination of active bleach compounds (in particular inorganic) with organic bleach activators and/or organic antiredeposition agents (in particular polysaccharide antiredeposition agents) is necessary. Those skilled in the art understand bleach activators to be chemical compounds, which increase the bleaching effect in the presence of peroxide compounds. In a solid bleaching agent composition, the organic bleach activators are in contact with an increased concentration of the active bleach compound, which results in a thermal instability.
The same problem can arise in packaging said bleaching agent additive as a single dose in a portion wrapped in a water-soluble material. The water-soluble wrapping material usually contains organic compounds, which also come in contact with the concentrated solid bleaching agent additive. The object has therefore been to supply portions as a single-use dose that is stable in storage, so that solid compositions have a high concentration of at least one peroxide compound and at least one organic bleach activator in combination with at least one polysaccharide. Furthermore, it is desired to supply portions as a dosing unit that would be stable in storage for the treatment of textiles and would contain a combination of said solid composition with a liquid textile treatment composition in a water-soluble wrapping. On coming in contact with water, said compositions are released from the portion functioning as a dosage unit.
In addition, the solid composition with a high bleaching agent content should be gentle on the textiles and should improve the washing performance of washing agents, in particular liquid washing agents as an additive within the context of a textile washing.